Complained about boss for bullying and now facing disciplinary

Ja7188

My company allows you to carry over 10 days.

OK - the figure of 40 days still seems very high as even if you're far enough through the holiday year to have accrued most of your entitlement, this would still imply an annual leave entitlement of 30 days - is this figure correct?

I didn’t actually resign until my vetting was cleared. Once that had happened I resigned and applied for annual leave for some of my 30 day resignation period. That was refused without good reason as the boss was being malicious. As I had cleared the decks there was nothing for me to do but sit at my desk and get more abuse from my boss.

How do you know that there's no good reason? They may still want you around just in case queries arise on any of the items you've handed over, or they may want you to pick up other work.

I then emailed my sick note into Hr and told them this was brought on by work related stress from my bullying boss. They decided not to peruse this allegation as I was leaving but instead listened to my boss who has fabricated some allegations that have not been disclosed to me until the investigation manager contacts me.

Again, have you done anything that could be considered gross misconduct and which could be the basis of the allegations against you? I don't want to come across as unsympathetic to your situation, but a lot of posters come on here complaining about being mistreated and then on further discussion, it turns out that the issue is in fact two-sided...

pinkshoes

Your boss was quite entitled to refuse your holiday during your notice period.

30 days holiday is a huge amount! Ok, so 10 were carried over for last year, but how many days do you get? Make sure that you calculate your holiday entitlement carefully and that they pay you for all these days with your final pay slip.

As for the grievance, just ignore it and don't get stressed. If they want to waste their time doing the paperwork, then let them.

iammumtoone

When you stated your reasons for being sick did you mention anything about your boss refusing your holiday requests as part of the bulling?


He was entitled to refuse the holiday request he doesn't have to give a reason. Whilst I don't doubt he has bullied you refusing holiday requests is not bulling and if you said it was then this could explain why you are in trouble.


The company sound awful and you should be glad you are out of it. Me personally, I think I would go just to see what they thought I had done but only you know if you are up to this and your health needs to come first.

nicechap

Coastie wrote: »

For the last eight months I have been bullied by my boss as he has just employed his friend and wants me to leave so he can take on my role. I have been employed for 11 years in the same post and have an excellent work record. I made a complaint about my boss to his manager that resulted in a grievance hearing that was informally resolved. My boss was better for a few weeks but it started to go down hill again. I then applied for another job and was accepted but had to wait 6 weeks to go through vetting checks. I told my boss that I was going to leave in about 6 weeks time and would clear up any outstanding work. I had 40 days leave to take as I had carried over several from the previous year. After making sure that my decks were clear I put in to annual leave that was refused by my boss without good reason. He then refused to explain or even speak to me. I then resigned giving 30 days notice. This caused me a lot of stress and went to the doctors as I had chest pains. The doctor said that I had very high blood pressure and was at risk of having a heart attack. The doctor then signed me off sick with stress which covered me until the last day of my employment. I emailed my sick certificate into HR and explained that I had high blood pressure due to work related stress brought on by my bullying boss.
Today I received a letter from bosses manager saying that I was being investigated for gross misconduct (counter allegation from my boss and its nature has not been disclosed) and my sickness would not stop the investigation and it would be completed before my last day of employment with them. I am so stressed out by this my blood pressure has gone through the roof.
As my new employment has been secured and references are not required, should I assist with the investigation? I know I have done nothing wrong but I am worried that I could have a full on heart attack.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Coastie wrote: »

I emailed them with the complaint about bullying but they have chosen to ignore it.

Coastie wrote: »

My company allows you to carry over 10 days.
I didn’t actually resign until my vetting was cleared. Once that had happened I resigned and applied for annual leave for some of my 30 day resignation period. That was refused without good reason as the boss was being malicious. As I had cleared the decks there was nothing for me to do but sit at my desk and get more abuse from my boss.
As I had chest pains I went to the Doc and he confirmed that my blood pressure was through the roof and said I was unfit to work due to stress. I then emailed my sick note into Hr and told them this was brought on by work related stress from my bullying boss. They decided not to peruse this allegation as I was leaving but instead listened to my boss who has fabricated some allegations that have not been disclosed to me until the investigation manager contacts me. I have 3 weeks left of my notice to serve.

What outcome do you want?

Employers are perfectly entitled to determine when an employee can take leave and do not have to provide an individual explanation. That said, if the company has an annual leave policy including published rules for how it is granted/ allocated, then that would be grounds for a grievance. However, as your previous grievance has been resolved and you are leaving what will that achieve?

In terms of the gross misconduct allegation, an employer is perfectly entitled to carry out an investigation and then a hearing and find it proved or not. If proved they can then apply an appropriate disciplinary sanction including dismissal irrespective of any planned resignation. If you refuse to co-operate or take part, then they will only have the evidence provided by whoever has made the allegation.

Whilst I appreciate you have linked your high blood pressure to work related stress, I doubt your GP will have written that - there are many causes which may be of more significance.

So you can bury your head in the sand, you can be exceptionally rude and unprofessional as advised in posts above and provide them with more evidence of gross misconduct, or you can co-operate and show them the allegation is baseless. Reading up and learning their disciplinary processes better than HR know them would be a good start, a decent union representative would run rings around them and probably have a word higher up to get the whole thing dropped as a waste of business time and resources - unless there was some wider benefit to investigating the gross misconduct allegation (such as sexual harassment - I'm not saying this is what it is, but a company should investigate such allegations thoroughly and show they have done so properly irrespective of the accused leaving).

Ultimately its your choice, you're moving on, in the meantime do you want a letter arriving dismissing you or do you want your name cleared.

Coastie

Have thought about this all weekend. I am going to see what they allege and try not to worry about it as i have a good job to go to.

girllikeme1

Coastie wrote: »

I emailed them with the complaint about bullying but they have chosen to ignore it.

Did you raise this as a formal grievance? They are not allowed to ignore it. Follow up on your original email and state you want this investigated as a formal grievance.

TBagpuss

Refusing the time off may backfire as they will most likely have to pay you for the untaken holiday. (depends on your contract, but they would have to pay for statuatory holiday accruded but not taken)

I'd suggestsgoing on for the disciplinary meeting and in the mean time, write to HR raising the issue of repeated bullying, retaliation etc and make clear that you wish that to be addressed as a formal grievance.

getmore4less

There is also the chance the bosses boss is going along with allegation to collect the evidence needed to deal with the situation.

Coastie

Had a shock today. I have agreed to be interviewed next Wednesday regarding the gross misconduct allegation but have then heard from my new employer who i start work with in 2 weeks time, that someone from my company telephoned them today to tell them i am being investigated. My new employer has now emailed me to say that the job offer has been put on hold. Surely this is a breach of data protection?

billy2shots

You asked for holiday. This request was turned down because you had given notice to leave. It is perfectly normal not to be granted annual leave during notice periods, your employer has done nothing wrong. You would be paid any outstanding holiday pay at the end of your employment.

You were then off sick during the time you had requested annual leave for. This will see alarm bells ringing. Your employer has decided to investigate things. Again , no issue here.

Your employer has possibly passed on the fact you are going through a disciplinary procedure to a future employer. Again, no issue whatsoever and most future employers request this info.

I’m not denying you are genuinely sick and medical records will prove this in a disciplinary. However from the limited information you have provided I think you are contributing to your own health problems by feeling hard done by and picked in.